1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mass storage apparatus comprising a mass storage capable of carrying out read/write from/to an external device and an output device capable of outputting image data and voice data which are stored in the mass storage, and a method of outputting data to the output device mounted on the mass storage apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mass storage apparatus having an output function such as image display or voice output, for example, a digital camera, a portable telephone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) or an MP3 player is connected to a computer to exchange data, thereby obtaining various advantages to enlarge an application range in addition to the original function of the mass storage apparatus.
When the mass storage apparatus is connected to a computer to exchange data, conventionally, data are read/written from/to the computer for a mass storage mounted on the mass storage apparatus. This operation is carried out by transmitting a read/write command for the mass storage from the computer through a connecting interface with the mass storage apparatus.
Referring to a technique for connecting the mass storage apparatus to the computer to exchange data, Japanese Patent No. 2918036 has disclosed a media viewer technique with an eye to directly viewing data stored in the mass storage of the mass storage apparatus.
In the patent, a portable storage device mainly supposing a hard disk is used as data media capable of exchanging a notebook computer and a mobile apparatus, and furthermore, is connected to a display device and is thus used as a media viewer. For this purpose, there is a function of controlling a connection depending on a connecting partner.
In the conventional technique, however, there has not been proposed a method of positively utilizing an output device to be attached to the mass storage apparatus when reading and writing data between the mass storage and the computer. When reading and writing data between the mass storage and the computer, conventionally, a fixed alarm display is carried out for these output devices at most.
The reason is as follows. When the mass storage apparatus is connected to the computer, the computer acquires the use right of the mass storage of the mass storage apparatus, and the mass storage is used by transmitting only the read/write command of data stored in the mass storage from the computer to the mass storage apparatus and the output device attached to the mass storage apparatus is not used. The user of the mass storage apparatus needs to disconnect the mass storage apparatus from the computer after data are transmitted to the mass storage and to operate the mass storage apparatus to confirm the data, and cannot immediately confirm the data transmitted from the computer with a connection to the computer.
If image data to be displayed in the mass storage apparatus are edited by a personal computer, moreover, it is generally difficult to obtain an expected output because characteristics on the output apparatus side are different from each other. For example, the display screen of a portable telephone set controls a screen size, a resolution and the number of colors. Therefore, there is a problem in that a remarkable difference is particularly made if the edit is carried out by the personal computer. Since the speaker of the portable telephone set also has a small dynamic range, moreover, different sounds are heard actually.